Tomatofest Wrong Seeds?

[Elayne]

I ordered Red Brandywine seeds from Tomatofest this year and was surprised to find they were all PL. I have grown Red Brandywine twice before and they were RL. (got the seeds from Heirloomseeds) I emailed Gary Ibsen and he immediately replied that his strain of Red Brandywine are PL. Can Red Brandywine be PL or RL? Also, my Cherokee Purple seeds were about half PL. I am worried that I will not have the tomatoes I expected, but it is too late to start new seeds. I have always had good luck with Tomatofest before. Any comments?

[feldon30]

Just that Red Brandywine and Cherokee Purple are RL.

There was a PL Red Brandywine which was widely distributed. It's still available at TomatoGrowers.com. You have to look for Red Brandywine (Landis) to get the right one from TomatoGrowers.com.

[elkwc36]

Elayne,
I got PL Red Brandywine from another vendor also. Guess there is a few out there still offering it. My vendor said they bought their seeds from an outside source. I'm growing both to compare. I've heard the PL is bigger and a good producer but who knows what it actually is. All Tomatofest seeds I purchased have grown true to type. Out of 115 varieities(from probably 20 sources including trades) I only had two that didn't. Neither came from them. Jay

[carolyn137]

The PL Red Brandywine is not Red Brandywine and it was and still is being distributed, obviously, by Seeds by Design in CA who are wholesale sellers of many OP varieties and who have distributed many wrong varieties such as a PL Watermelon Beefsteak and an RL Lillian's Yellow and more.

No one knows what the PL RB is.

So if a place is offering these it says to me that they bought them off the shelf, as it were, from Seeds by Design/

Mike at Victory Seeds was also selling this PL Red Brandywine but the minute he found out that fact he stopped selling it.

If the Cherokee Purple Seeds gave some PL and some RL, then who knows what's what since it indicates crossed seeds. You can't assume that the RL ones are CP b'c of the crossed nature of the seeds. And unless the seeds were bought as Cherokee Purple Potato Leaf then there should be no PL seedlings.

And some of those who have grown both CP and CP Potato Leaf which arose in Jere Gettles garden insist that the PL version is not truly CP.

[amideutch]

The Red Brandywine I received from Victory seed this year is (RL). So I guess Mike has the "Real Deal" now. Ami

[mdvpc]

" Mike at Victory Seeds was also selling this PL Red Brandywine but the minute he found out that fact he stopped selling it."

Just another good reason to do business with Victory whenever you can.

[Deer Park]

I also have wrong seeds from Tomato Fest.

Red Georgia seeds produce a yellow red bicolor.

I hadn't emailed them about it but will today.

Michael

[camochef]

I grew Red Brandywine PL from seeds I had obtained from Victory seeds and they produced delicious dark red globular tomatoes, very smooth skinned and close in taste to Pink Brandywine-Sudduth's but not near the size. They put out a large crop and I was pleased with there production. Whether they were right or wrong... I liked them and hope I still have some seed from them to plant more this year.
Camo

[Elayne]

This year, I am buying seeds from several different seed companies including Victory Seeds. I ordered Red Brandywine from Heirloom Seeds and am hoping for the RL variety that I have grown in the past.

[camochef]

Elayne,
I purchased Red Brandywine from Heirloom Seeds last year also for my late planting. Unfortuneately none of them made it as those that did germaninate died off. So I have no idea what type leaf they might have had. But the potato-leaf reds from victory, produced a wonderful tasty tomato and plenty of them. They might not be what they should have been but I have no complaints, and I'm glad I still have seed from them to plant more.
I find myself having a preference for Potato-leafed varieties as they seem to produce a much healthier looking plant, and I find them to have the better tasting varieties, at least here in my region with the weather we had last year.
The majority of my regular-leaf plants looked sparse and spindly in comparison to the more impressive looking potato-leafs. Although their tomatoes still tasted good! Wish you luck with all that you plant!
camo

[carolyn137]

Tom Hauch at Heirloom Seeds in PA was the first to get Red Brandywine out of the SSE YEarbook and offer it commercially.

He sent seeds to Steve Miller at the Landis Museum in PA which features Amish varieties. RB is the only one of the brandywines to have a documented Amish history and that's the one that Steve got when he followed up on the background/

Tom considers the RB to be his signature variety.

A few years ago I got RB seeds from him and compared them with my RB seeds that's I'd gotten from a fellow SSE member back in the early 90's. They were identical/

[Elayne]

Victory Seeds does not appear to be offering Red Brandywine this year, possibly because of the RL vs PL problem? The "Red Brandywine" seeds I bought from Tomatofest last year were PL, not very large and the flavor was mediocre. This year I ordered Red Brandywine from Heirloom Seeds.

[robin303]

OK You guys need to help out the new guy. What the heck is:
PL
RL
RB
CP
Thanks Robin

[Elayne]

PL Potato Leaf
RL Regular Leaf
RB Red Brandywine
CP Cherokee Purple

Robin, You aren't alone! I don't understand alot of the terms and abbreviations used here. I am a tomato growing amateur who has learned alot from the experts here.

[robin303]

Thanks Elayne, We almost need a glossary. Took me a week to figure out what BER was LOL